By Emily Ashbolt

The minute a co-op enters clypd’s (pronounced ‘clipped’) trendy Davis Square office space, it is clear they are not in for a typical experience.  Clypd, a television advertising company, is officially in the business of innovating television advertising techniques to bring them up to the technological advancement present in digital and web-based ads.  But their mission, especially when it comes to co-ops, goes so much further than that.

Andrei MacKenzie is a principle software engineer at clypd and has been the co-op coordinator since 2015. He does not hesitate to emphasize the joy and progress co-ops consistently bring to the company. “We see co-ops as peers in terms of the engineering drive to get [ahead technologically].”

Clypd typically hires 2-4 co-ops every cycle, and more than one of those co-ops have returned to work full-time post-graduation.

Working at clypd was Joey Goode’s (BS, Computer Science/Game Design, ’16) first co-op, back in the spring of 2014, and he knew he wanted to end up with clyped before his co-op was even completed. “Clypd is a fantastic company, due in large part to the people that we hire,” explained Goode. “At the time [of my co-op], they were the finest group of people I had ever worked with and continue to be today: friendly, compassionate, and enthusiastic.” Goode worked part-time at clypd after his co-op ended and has been a full-time employee since 2016.

Current senior Matt Riley (BSCS, ’17), who co-oped at clypd in 2016, also could see himself coming back to the company full-time after his graduation in May, citing the freedom the company gave him, and the fantastic interview experience he had there. “Over time, it was like I wasn’t even a co-op any more, I was a full-time employee…and they allowed for that experience to happen, which was…really cool,” Riley reflected on his experience. “There wasn’t any limits to what I could and couldn’t do.”

This kind of freedom is an important aspect to the co-op experience at clypd, and one Mackenzie prides the company on. “In terms of how co-ops fit in at clypd, we do everything we can to make them just like every other full-time software engineer.” Co-ops are given opportunities to lead projects and participate in interest ‘guilds’, small groups with purposes both in and out of software.

Clypd also prides itself on its intense mentorship program, originally started for co-ops but expanded to the whole 50+ person company. “It used to be that we would give co-ops a mentor and they would go and have a little extra supervision,” explained Goode. “Then we realized that [mentorship is] something everyone could benefit from, and now we have our mentorship program expanded to encompass quite a lot of the company.”

Riley had only praise for this program and his mentor, Liz. “She just did the best job, she was always making sure I was comfortable, and making sure that everything was ok.” Explained Riley, “The mentor program is something that [clypd takes] really seriously and when they say that they take it really seriously, they really do go above and beyond for their new employees and co-ops.”

For Goode, the mentoring program fits in with clypd’s larger goal to give all employees, co-op or otherwise, the chance to take on new challenges. “That’s very much a part of the dynamic here, to encourage people to learn from all sorts of sources.” The company’s mentality reflects this across the board, for co-ops and full-times alike. “We think that a lot of people rise to the challenges they are given, and so [we] try to give them challenges that they can rise to.”

Clypd and CCIS have been partners since 2014. Said Mackenzie “I have a great relationship with Aileen (Kent Yates, CCIS Assistant Co-op Coordinator).” For Kent Yates, it is important to make sure that clypd and CCIS are getting as much out of the co-op program as possible. “I feel like she’s devoting a great amount of attention both to how co-ops are doing here -she’s come here for visits before- and both in how we can expand the program and how we can make sure we’re getting, as a company, out of it what we expect.”

Clypd accepts co-ops from all experience levels. “Primarily, we are looking for people who are really excited about learning new things and who are self-starters.” Summarized Mackenzie, “I think that the message I’d want to send to prospective co-ops is that they’ll learn a lot here.”

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